CHAPTER 1

Semantics is the study of meaning

Semantics is a branch of theoretical linguistics
Linguistics is divided into two major branches:
4
1. Theoretical linguistics.. includes: syntax, morphology, phonetics, the history of L, and semantics
2. Applied linguistics.. includes: language teaching, L testing, lexicography, translation,
psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic
2
formIn The triangle of meaning: itisnotjustspecifictoEnglish
16 If
There are two form of language: written or spoken word
Graphemes means letters the we can perceive through our eyes (c , a , h , t…)
The referent exists rst, then the word comes accompanied 1
3
with its meaning that points to the referent Referent
Meaning
if you it and touch it then it is a referent
can see
referent word meaning differentfromoneanother yettheyare strongly related

The referent exists rst, why?

because we sees something thenwe give it a name
give it a nameand
theon
discover a thing
ten
give it a meaning
Types of meaning:
example you've done a greatjob
1. The sentence meaning
isaythe exactthingandmeanthe exactthing
2. The speaker’s meaning
it can berevealedthroughthespeaker's facialfeaturesvoicetoneeyelooks
3. The hearer’s meaning
Themeaning understood bythehearer icansaysomethingand I
Thespeakermaymeanpraisebutthehearer meantheopposite
understands blame
Most sentences are informative, but not all. Some sentences have zero information and
their sole function is social example itcoldtoday ithottoday
thepurposehereis tostart a conversation
Semantics is a general science that deals with ALL languages, not with one single language

Utterance U'Her
means to speak toutter to saysomething
take the sentence and speak it you areuttering the
sentence
whenyousaysomething out loud it becomes an Utterance

A sentence is an ideal combination of words concatenated horizontally in accordance with

special syntactic rules, and it is realized in the spoken or written form

is an abstract
the same sentence can be turned intoone utterance ormore
a is a realizedthroughmillions ofutterances

Utterance could be one word or more, a whole sentence or part of it, with a pause
before and a pause after

is a real speech attached to acertainplacetime speakerhearer situation

more realthan sentence
Thesentencewill be written in italics
Theutterancewill be written in quotationmarks
s in theexam
i want to propose an idea
i want to propose something to giveyou or to tellyousomething
to give an ideaor to write aplan
1
Proposition as the idea thethinking
process
comes first
Proposition: we rst think, then we form a 2sentence, and nally we change the sentence into an
3
utterance

Theproposition is the es n É of meaning theproposition maybetrue or false

if thepropositionmatchesrealitythen
it is true
If the idea that you’re thinking about is true both of the sentence and the utterance must be
true but, if the proposition is false both of the sentence and the utterance are similarly false
Thesentence can betrueor false
Thesentencecan begrammaticallycorrect or grammatically incorrect

The S is trueandgrammatically correct

The S isfalseandgrammaticallycorrect
The S is false andgrammatically incorrect
yes The Sis trueandgrammaticallyincorrect

doesn'tdepend on
The proposition is independent of language
we canthinkaboutthesamething butwillexpress
thesame P in a different 5 and different U
Proposition, sentence, and utterance
• As for the voice loudness, the P and the S have no loudness because they are abstract,
but the U has
• As for the grammatical correctness, the P has no correctness since it is language
independent, but the S and the U have since they can be correct or incorrect dialect accent
• As for the information value, the P, S and U can be true or false
• As for dialect, the P has no dialect since it is a language independent. The S has no dialect
since it is abstract. The U has a dialect, depending on the speaker’s dialect
• As for language dependence, the P is language independent, but both S and U are
dependent
abstract something
• As for abstractness, the P and the S are abstract, but the U is real and actual
that'snotmoving

Tensentences belongtothesamepropositionandeachofthemcan
be realizedbyMILLIONS ofutterances
 I

Sense and reference

The sense of a word explains it relations with other words in the same language

example richis a synonym ofwealthy goandcomeareoppesites orange is a kindoffruit

Reference is the relation of the word with the external world

example thewordtreehas a relationship with something intheexternal world

itexists as aTordand as a realthingwhich i canseeit anything outside
touch itandcutitandsoon

if this is whatwe havethenwe'retalkingaboutreference

There is a difference between words and beings;
For example.. The word chair, is not a chair, nor the word car a car
i see a wordjustthewordchair ishere theactual pieceoffurnitureisnothere

Referring expression (RE): the language expression that refers to an actual being
WITH Referent (R): the external being This could be human, animal, plant, thing or place
411
Reference: the relation between RE and the R
mm
Not all language expressions are referring expressions (RE’s),
and not all external beings are referents (R’s)
Example: the cat looks like a tiger
We are not referring to a speci c cat or tiger, but indicating cats and tigers in general.
Thus the cat here is not RE, nor the tiger

• The RE must refer to a speci c being in the external world

• The referent (R) may be constant or changeable for the same RE
The differences between the sense and the referent (R)
1. sense is the relation between a language expression (LE) and other LE’s in the same language (L),
but the R is a speci c being in the external world
2. Sense is not related to words only, but to phrases and sentences as well
3. Sense is abstract, but the referent (R) is real and concrete, existing in the external world
4. Every meaningful language expression (LE) has a sense, but not every LE has a R

it
 Hewenttoschool I

sos .am

• Semantics is the study of ____________.

• Semantics is a branch of theoretical _____________.
• The triangle of meaning includes the word, meaning, and ___________.
• The word has a ___________ form and a ____________ form.
• Meaning exists in the human ___________ but the referent exists in the external __________.
• Language is usually used to exchange ___________ but it is sometimes used to develop
___________ relations.
• The utterance may have three meanings: the __________ meaning, __________ meaning, and
__________ meaning.
 Titiffiniti

asking theability
about anormalrequest

Yeah
II retainor a statementthat
eitherbe
trueorfalse ifthePmatches
Saarser

whichis
hisneighbor
Thespeakerinthesentence istalkingabout aspecificman

word
one two
having ormore
m eanings

army're Ititime

itn
[Link]

your
world
ofthis this
halting

I stiffas moments

whenit's
near toleavewehavean
need
midnightwe appointment
wesaythis
world
allswansarewhiteinthis
falsenot

didyousawherholding a
telescope
youseeherbyatelescope
ordid

8 1 39a
team whowonaprize
awinnerissomeone
 CHAPTER 3: Similarity of senses
sensesthataresimilar

Introduction: different synonym having similar meaning but each meaning has a different
context depending on the sentence

Have you ever asked yourself, why "large" and "big" are two words and have the same meaning?
Do you say "Can I have a large size?" or "Can I have a bigger size?" ?
Do you say "Can I have a large meal?" or "Can I have a bigger meal?" ?
So the answer is both are ne and correct, but one of them is more natural themismorenative
oneof
withmealsandsizesit'smorenaturalnotmorecorrectmorenatural to saylarge speakerlike
forthingsthatwetouchandthingsthatwefeel It'sokaytoswitch
it'smorenaturaltosaybigforthingsthatwedon't
see bigproblemsbig etc
discussions m eeting
big betweenthem

Q1: the dentist told me to (shut - close) my mouth

Q2: I didn't know what to do when I gotten to my car and couldn't (start - begin) the engine
Q3: I want to buy a sweater for my dad, he needs one in a (large - big) size
Q4: I haven't ( nished - ended) my essay, I can't decide now to ( nish it - end it)
Q5: all societies develop their own story on how the world (started - began)
Q6: It never easy to ( nish - end) a relationship
Words that have similar meaning
"Old" goes with friend and building (I met an old friend - that's a very old building)
"Ancient" goes with History and times (1 just studied ancient history - ancient times was very hard)
"Antique" goes with furniture and jewelry
"Elderly" it's more polite to use "elderly" than "old" (I helped an elderly person who was trying to cross
the road today)

Similarity of senses
thesame
exactly almostthesame
There are various kinds of relationships between word senses. Such senses may be identical, similar, or
different. The same fact is true about sentence senses

Synonymy is the identity of senses of two words or more. Each word is called a synonymy, and it is
synonymous with the other one or ones

The best test of synonymy is replacement. If a word can replace another without changing the sentence
meaning, the two words are synonyms.

forexample Smartstudent let's replace Smart with clever

ifthemeaningofthesentencedidn'tchangethenSmartand clever havethesamemeaning

smart so wehavetoseewhatcomesaftertheadj
phone andthenwedecideiftheyaresimilarornot
clever
synonymoussymbol

Synonymy is mutual of 1 or B A word word

Synonymy can also be between more than two words
Bright, clever, intelligent, keen, smart

Synonymy is rarely complete. It is rare to have two synonymous words that can replace each other in all
context, in most cases synonymy is partial.
In fact, some semanticists argue that language cannot possibly have complete synonyms.
Such linguists believe that all cases of synonymy are in fact, partial, not complete.

It is important to notice that synonymy is dependent on the basic meaning of the words, regardless
of the secondary, psychological, or stylistic meaning. If the basic meanings of the two words are
identical, the two words are synonyms.
fathermaleparent Thetwopsychological meaningsofthesetwowordsare differentwithmoreemotionattachedtothe
firstwordyetthetwoare synonyms becausethe basicmeanings arethesame

Synonymy is essentially that of senses, not of words. We have to say that the senses of these words are
synonyms, because synonymy is mainly a relationship between senses, not between words. despite this, out
of simplicity and brevity, it is acceptable to say that these words are synonyms.
 he IEEE physics

As for synonymy criteria there are two criteria: titillatinginesis

soteacher
andinstructorcanchangeoneanother
1. Contextual replacement: one word can replace the other in certain context
2. Mutual inclusion: if each word is a kind of the other, the two words are synonyms
LIKE
smithing
a teacheris a kindofinstructorandaninstructoris akindofteacher is whoteache
instructor someone

teacherissomeone
who
i nstruc

Notice that apple and fruit are not synonyms, because apple is
a kind of fruit, but fruit is not a kind of apple.
As for grammatical categories, it is common that the two synonyms belong to the same part of speech.
However, synonyms may belong to different part of speech.

Paraphrase
Synonymy is a relationship between words or senses of words, not senses of sentences. However, if two
S's are identical in sense, they are called paraphrase of the other

True or false:
1. Most cases of synonymy are complete ____
f
2. Synonymy is basically between words, not between senses ____f
3. Synonymy depends on the basic sense, not on additional and psychological senses ____T
4. Some semanticists deny the existence of complete synonymy, which they consider a linguistic
waste ____T
5. Synonymy is a relationship between words and also between sentences ____
T
6. The two synonyms must belong to the same part of speech ____f

This paraphrasing or paraphrase relationship can be achieved through two ways. First, we may have two
S's identical in all words except two synonyms in the same position, e.g., He did his homework very
quickly & He did his homework very speedily. In other words, we can make paraphrases through using
synonyms. Second, we may make paraphrases through transformation.
To illustrate the second point, look at these sentences :
1. Ali is Hani's father
2. Hani is Ali's son
3. The boy broke the window
4. The window was broken by the boy
same story P
5. The boy was the one who broke the window differentstories NP
6. John is the manager
7. The manager is John

isitsgraph p

NP

p
 paraphrase always withsentencesnotwithwords
Egg ifSAistruethenS B istrue
ifSAisfalsethenSBisfalse
SÉS
Hyponymy hyponym means it comes onthetop whichone is higher
Flower is a hyponymy of Rose whichone is lower
Fish is a hyponymy of tuna Lion, animal
Milk is a hyponymy of dairy products Orange, fruit
Table is a hyponymy of furniture Brother, relative

not Banimal ahima

lion hyponymmeans kindofortypeof
Animal is a superordinat of lion hypernym means include
Lion is a hypernym of animal

type liono animal

of hyponymof
Hyponymy is one direction only

True or false:
1. Hyponymy is mutual synonymy ___
2. Synonymy is mutual hyponymy ___
3. Both paraphrase and synonymy are identity of senses ___
T
4. Paraphrases are either both true or both false ___
5. fruit is a hyponym of apple ___
6. Plant is a hyponym of tree ___
7. Hyponymy has some kind of sense similarity ___T
8. Hyponymy and synonymy are relations between words, not between S's ___
T
9. Uncle is a hyponym of relative ___T
10. Hyponymy is a one-way relationship ___
11. Synonymy and paraphrase are one-way relationship ___
f
12. Animal is the superordinate of cat ___
T ishigherthancats
13. The superodinate is wider than the hyponym ___
animal
14. The hyponym is one kind of the superordinate ___
Entailment
Look at these sentences (S's):
1. She saw a boy
2. She saw a person 9 itcouldbeagirlmaleorfemale
S
3. He killed a lion
4. He killed an animal
S1 entails S2: if she saw a boy, this necessarily means that she saw a person, because boy is a hyponym
of person. Thus, S1 entails S2, and the relationship between S1 and S2 is a relationship of entailment.

entailment is a relationship between sentences only

If A entails B, the truth of A necessarily and inevitably entails the truth of B. However, the falsity
of A does not entail the falsity of B. In addition, if A entails B, B does not entail A.

The entailment symbol ( )

Synanomy

Paraphrase

Hyponymy

Entailment

Entailment can also be cumulative. If A entails B, and if B entails C then A entails C.

5. The boys saw a lion 55 56
6. The boys Saran animal
7. The persons saw an animal So St
5 57
If you jump a sentence or you skip one sentence, this will be called cumulative entailment
Thefocuswillbeonsentences
Entailment-Paraphrase Relationship
1. The battle ended in a sad way mutualentailment
2. The battle ended in a melancholy way
Si Sa and Sa S i S 5
sad
Entailment-Hyponymy Relationship
Look at these two S's:
1. The farmer was collecting some sheep
2. The farmer was collecting some animals is ahypynomof

does Seentails52 does itmeanwhenhecollectsomesheephe'scollectingsomeanimals yes

does S entailsS does itmeanwhenhecollectsome he's
animals collectingsome sheep no
Negative sentences
1. The farmer was not collecting some sheep
2. The farmer was not collecting some animals

doesS1entailsSa does itmeanwhenthefarmerwasnotcollectingsomesheepthismeansthefarmer

wasnotcollectinganimals no becausethe farmercould becollectingothersanimalsotherthansheep
does52entailsSe yes
All sentences
1. The farmer was collecting all sheep
2. The farmer was collecting all animals

doesSsentails52 does it meanwhenthefarmerwas collectingallsheepthathewascollecting

all animals no
does5 entails51 yes
Sentences with relative words
Anytime we use these adjectives (large, small, for, near) there's no entailment
1. He saw a large mouse
2. He saw a large animal
If he saw a large mouse, this cannot entail that he saw a large animal, because large is a relative word
with exible changeable sense
 F
457 F
T

T
type of
T
BA T

F
F

T
I T
T
T
same
story
booksis a hyponym
ofprintedmaterial
5 52

52 S

Sa s
 Chapter 4: Dissimilarity of senses
Antonyms
1. alive, dead IImitate notalive
he'snotdeadandifsomeoneisdeadhe's

youshouldbeeitheraliveordeadyoucannotbeboth

2. Sell, buy when sellsomethingsomeonebuysfrom when isselling

youbuysomethingyoubuythisthing
becausesomeone
you you
thisitemtoyou

3. Hot, cold
youeitherget ahotwateror acoldwaterright no youcangetawarmwater
4. north, east How isthispossible
5. north, south west east
south
6. cover, book
7. Saturday, Sunday
8. assistant professor, associate professor these are all oppositesofeachother
9. Cat, dog Howcome
EYEPYofantonyms
99
If we examine the previous nine pairs, we nd that each word in the pair excludes the other. If one is
alive, he cannot be dead. The one who sells is not the one who buys. Something hot cannot be cold at the
same time. Whatever is north cannot be east at the same time, and so on with the other pairs.

Antonyms has nine different types

1. binary antonyms real complementaryantonymy extremeantonymy
antonymy
True is the opposite of false 1. male, female
Single is the opposite of married 2. Alive, dead
Can you have an answer that can be true and false? No 3. Bachelor, married
You have to choose only one option
Canyoubesingleandmarried atthesametime No youcannot
Binary means you have to choose one, either this or that
You can either be A or B, you cannot be both A and B
 Some semanticists give this relation another name, i.e., real antonymy, because words here
are extremely opposite to each other; it is the most antonymous antonymy.
Some semanticists call this relation complementary antonymy, because the two words
complete the circle: people are either males or females, alive or dead, single or married.
Some linguists call this relation extreme antonymy for the same reason it has been called
real antonymy.

Notice that binary antonyms cannot be graded;

We cannot say "very married", "very dead" or "very alive"
ungradable antonyms is binary
Binary is ungradable
not no
To explain binary antonymy, we may put it this way : If A means -B, and B means -A,
then A B, where - means not, and indicates antonymy.

GA isthe opposite ofBandBistheoppositeofA Soitgoesbothways Mutual

2. Converse antonyms
when I teachyousomething youlearnsomethingfrommewhenyoulearnsomethingfrommebecause Iteachsomethingto
you
1. Sell, buy exists exists
2. Teach, learn
selling if buying
3. Father, son if I'm notteaching anythingnoone'sgoingtolearn anything
4. Give, receive
5. Husband, wife

What does Converse mean?

One of these antonyms exists because of the other antonym.
The two words of each pair are concomitant: no one can exist without the other. There is no selling
without buying, no father without a son, and no husband without a wife.

3. Gradable antonymy
1. easy, difficult I cansayveryeasyverydifficult
2. Cold, hot
3. Near, far a verycold veryhot
4.
5.
Clever, stupid
Beautiful, ugly jig.fig8
iara YEEgnotsay
Esiiii'ftp

C C
G B
C B
C G
4. Perpendicular antonymy north
1. North, east in
2. North, west perpendicular
3. South, east
4. South, west
Extensional
5. Extensional antonymy West East
1. north, south
2. east, west
3. Right, left
4. Up, Down
Solti
Both of perpendicular and extensional are directional antonyms

ND
D
ND ND
D ND

partof
6. Partial antonymy
1. Cover, book
2. Brake, car
3. Wall, room
4. Finger, hand
5. Pupil, eye
6. Eardrum, ear
Everything on the left is part of the right
Of-structure
The nger of the hand, the pupil of the eye
Compound structure ( the whole is the rst word and the part is the second word)
Book cover, room wall, car brake
Genitive structure ( the whole is also the rst word and the part is the second)
Boy's hand

7. Cyclic antonymy I can start from anywhere

Non stop
1. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
2. Winter, spring, summer, autumn

8. Rank antonymy
i can't start from anywhere
we have specificorder
1. Assistant professor, associate professor, full professor fromthe
2. Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior
3. Grade 1, grade 2, grade 3..., grade 12 lowest touffest

9. Af nity antonymy
1. apple, orange, banana
2. Cow, sheep, horse
3. Book, encyclopedia, magazine

m
imites fi i i

[Link] yffahfIartwebs [Link]

i sank

usevery
cannot i usevery
can [Link]
ysfrt
[Link]
 SP 189gtnre Ehse nmspomsms

C
R
A A
C A
C R

einerest at a
B
By
M
B M
M B

very very
gradable Cyclic
Extinsional perpendicular

Affinity
123.4.56 first third
191
second fourth

converse
of
mispartthe
partial

binary converse gradable perpendicular extensional partialrankcyclicAffinity

Contradictoriness oppositeson
[Link]
is 1. Hani is born in 1975
2. Hani is born in 1985
canyoutell
if we haveS opposite ofSaandSoppositeof S thenthisisnotautonomy
thisiscalledcontradictoriness
Antonomy-Contradictoriness Relationship
1. This tree is an apple tree Canthesametreeproducesapplesandoranges no
2. This tree is an orange tree
3.
4.
Today is Saturday
Today is Sunday can
today's
Eating [Link]
it'samitiiii
5. This water is hot
6. This water is cold [Link] aw Eis aiiEsamEiii no
hotandcold are gradableantonymy
This shows that if two S's are identical in all words except two antonymous words in identical positions,
the two S's will be contradictories of each other, provided that the referents are the same. In S's (1, 2),
this tree in both S's must refer to the same tree; otherwise, the two S's will not be contradictories.

1.
2.
The man bought a goat
The man bought a horse
Ifmfg
thesamemanbuy agoatandhorseatthesametimeyes nt ÑÉ
ryher
3. Some people love to go to France Itis anormalsent
4. Some people love to go to Italy Cansomepeople to andsomepeople to Italy
France
go go yes

We may conclude that antonymy does not always lead to contradictoriness. If two sentences are identical
in all words except two antonyms in the same position and all referents in both S's are the same, the
two S's may be contradictories. If R's are not the same, the two S's are not contradictories.

words
only only
sentences
f
doyothinkantonymyandcontradictoriness arethesamething
ungradable

T
f

multiple
senses

sentences
nondirectional
gradable
Extensional

Rank
antonymy
 left go continue
allow permit follow
zero none displeased unhappy

lie backwards
distrustsuspicion excess extremity

Chapter 5: ambiguity of senses adj

n ambiguous

meaning
A word or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one sense

Pysemphaning
multiple
Lomonymythame
same

Related polysemy
Not related
D
homonymy hastwoetymology
Homonymy: if a word has two senses or more with no relation between them
Polysemy: if a word has two senses or more that are related to one another

Homonymy and Synonymy

Homonymy involves one word, but synonymy involves two words
Is it possible to de ne homonymy using synonymy? Yes